Nitates 160ppm

[mona]

I can't seem to get these under control. I have 10 gallon planted with 1 fish and 2 snails. I do water changes 1/5th once a week. I use Prime water conditioner and Easy Green. ( I was doing 2 squirts then last week I found out I had a 10 gallon and only did 1 squirt) I stupidly changed the filter set up a couple weeks ago. And subsequently learned I restarted the cycling. Why are my Nitates so high. How do I fix this.

PH. 7.6

PH High 7.4

Ammonia 0

Nitrites 0

Nitrates 160ppm

[quikv6]

I would lay off the easy green for awhile, while subsequently doing daily water changes of around 25-30% until it gets to around 20-40ppm. Then monitor, and see how much water you need to change weekly/bi-weekly/monthly to maintain that.

While that nitrate level is high, don't panic. I recently started tanking care of a workplace tank that was neglected for years. The Nitrates were around 500ppm, and a single fish was "living" it it for at least 7-8 years. I slowly brought it down with daily small water changes. It took 2 weeks to get it under control from that level, and now it it very easy to maintain. The behavior, appetite, and color of the fish improved quite noticeably as well.

 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Ouch. Do you fertilize with just the Easy Green or do you have root tabs too? Others might say it's ok but if I were in your shoes I'd stop fertilizing just for now (it adds nitrates to your water) and do a big water change. Monitor until your cycle is back under control, THEN start fertilizing again. 

I don't use fertilizers- and my plants do fine. 🙂 So they'll be ok for a little bit. IMO

[mona]

On 1/1/2022 at 5:16 PM, quikv6 said:

I would lay off the easy green for awhile, while subsequently doing daily water changes of around 25-30% until it gets to around 20-40ppm. Then monitor, and see how much water you need to change weekly/bi-weekly/monthly to maintain that.

While that nitrate level is high, don't panic. I recently started tanking care of a workplace tank that was neglected for years. The Nitrates were around 500ppm, and a single fish was "living" it it for at least 7-8 years. I slowly brought it down with daily small water changes. It took 2 weeks to get it under control from that level, and now it it very easy to maintain. The behavior, appetite, and color of the fish improved quite noticeably as well.

 

Thank you. I feel better now. I will follow your advice. 

[mona]

On 1/1/2022 at 5:17 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

Ouch. Do you fertilize with just the Easy Green or do you have root tabs too? Others might say it's ok but if I were in your shoes I'd stop fertilizing just for now (it adds nitrates to your water) and do a big water change. Monitor until your cycle is back under control, THEN start fertilizing again. 

I don't use fertilizers- and my plants do fine. 🙂 So they'll be ok for a little bit. IMO

Yes I do have root tabs in, about 8-9 for 9 plants. I'll stop the easy green for awhile. Most of the plants are root feeders. Only a few are water feeders. Thank you. Maybe I put too many root tabs in. Yikes

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

@mona that'll do it. I used root tabs for a little bit when I started back in the hobby. I didn't like how it threw my parameters off. So I stopped. Not telling you to do so- just saying it's something to expect and you have to manage it. My Amazon plant is in a 20 gallon tall and it's curling back down towards the aquarium floor. No root tabs. Just sayin 😉 

[Levi_Aquatics]

I am experiencing similar issues with one of my aquariums. I Have just decided to keep a lot of water column feeding plants-java moss and fern mainly- and do regular water changes which seems to work well however my tap water has nitrates already in it which doesnt help anything.

[laritheloud]

Yeah as others have said, no more root tabs, stop dosing with Easy Green, and continue with small daily water changes until the nitrates get down to a reasonable level. The root tabs will likely continue to leech some nitrates into the water column for awhile, but it'll stop eventually. Hang in there and focus on getting the cycle back on track!

[Odd Duck]

Agree with everyone to stop the Easy Green until your nitrates are down to 40 or below.  Do at least a 50% water change daily until your nitrates are down to 40, then continue small water changes as needed to keep those levels down.

If you have any water column feeders you can add, that will also help pull nitrates out of the water column.  Floating plants can also help a lot very quickly.  Frogbit is a champ as a nitrate sink.  You shouldn’t need to keep the extra plants in if you don’t want to, just keep them in long enough until you find the tank’s balance.

[Guppysnail]

Great advice already given about more water changes and stopping fertilizer until the situation is under control. For what it is worth i have a huge variety of plants in all my tanks. Several i was told had to have co2. I do not use fertilizer or root tabs in my tanks and do not use co2. My plants thrive. I just cut a ton of ludwiga in half because they grew to the top and floated almost the entire way across a 40b. They are again to the top floating across and the few i cut in half and moved to a 29 are doing the same in the deeper tank. I keep my nitrates between 15-30. When my nitrates go above that my plants stop growing and algae starts growing. Hope that helps 

[Torrey]

On 1/1/2022 at 6:10 PM, mona said:

PH. 7.6

PH High 7.4

Ammonia 0

Nitrites 0

Nitrates 160ppm

If everything else has been staying stable, I [personally] would not do any large water changes. Especially if your fish and snails are not showing signs of stress. Even healthy, positive changes can be stressful. 

It sounds like you started out overdoing the Easy Green, and now you have adjusted the dosing. Before you risk overstressing fish or snails, examine your tank.

Are any root tabs working their way out of the substrate?

Is the fish showing rapid respiration?

Is there algae growing?

What are the parameters of your tap water?

 

If you want to read a little reassuring evidence on high nitrates and fish health, I would check out  https://aquariumscience.org/index.php/5-ammonia-nitrite-nitrate-and-chlorine/ for science backed information on the risks.

I have a turtle pond that develops obscenely high nitrates, but never has even a trace of ammonia or nitrites. Frogbit and duckweed do a great job at lowering the nitrates... until the turtle, Karma, goes on a salad binge. 

The endlers and snails are used to the nitrate spikes, however a large water change will disrupt the beneficial bacteria and the fish do not react well to large water changes. 

So if Karma goes on a binge, I know that the nitrates will rapidly increase due to the beneficial bacteria breaking down turtle waste. I can slow it down by doing regular, twice daily small water changes... or by covering the surface with water plants from other tanks.

Neither of these solutions is overly stressful for the endlers, and which one I choose depends on what is easiest for me. 

[mona]

On 1/2/2022 at 1:28 PM, Torrey said:

If everything else has been staying stable, I [personally] would not do any large water changes. Especially if your fish and snails are not showing signs of stress. Even healthy, positive changes can be stressful. 

It sounds like you started out overdoing the Easy Green, and now you have adjusted the dosing. Before you risk overstressing fish or snails, examine your tank.

Are any root tabs working their way out of the substrate?

Is the fish showing rapid respiration?

Is there algae growing?

What are the parameters of your tap water?

 

If you want to read a little reassuring evidence on high nitrates and fish health, I would check out  https://aquariumscience.org/index.php/5-ammonia-nitrite-nitrate-and-chlorine/ for science backed information on the risks.

I have a turtle pond that develops obscenely high nitrates, but never has even a trace of ammonia or nitrites. Frogbit and duckweed do a great job at lowering the nitrates... until the turtle, Karma, goes on a salad binge. 

The endlers and snails are used to the nitrate spikes, however a large water change will disrupt the beneficial bacteria and the fish do not react well to large water changes. 

So if Karma goes on a binge, I know that the nitrates will rapidly increase due to the beneficial bacteria breaking down turtle waste. I can slow it down by doing regular, twice daily small water changes... or by covering the surface with water plants from other tanks.

Neither of these solutions is overly stressful for the endlers, and which one I choose depends on what is easiest for me. 

Yes everything else seems stable. If one know if it's normal but my Betts has begun hanging out near the bottom and behind plants. He comes out right away when I come to his tank though. ( waiting on a floating log delivery in case that's why) I don't see any root tabs poking out. My Tap water Nitrates are between 10 and 20. No algae, Fish is perky when he comes to greet me. Some of my plants are melting some have yellow leaves. But I expected that as they are all new. Here is a pic of my tank. It is 10 gallon. I have 11 root tabs on it. Could it be to many?

[mona]

Ok I have lowered the Nitrates to 20 ppm. By no easy green and 15% water changes daily. I have water column plants and root feeders. I have 10-11 root tabs on a 10 gallon. Should I remove some root tabs so I can start doing easy green weekly again? 

[Odd Duck]

On 1/4/2022 at 1:38 PM, mona said:

Ok I have lowered the Nitrates to 20 ppm. By no easy green and 15% water changes daily. I have water column plants and root feeders. I have 10-11 root tabs on a 10 gallon. Should I remove some root tabs so I can start doing easy green weekly again? 

Root tabs dissolve in the substrate pretty quickly so removing them would be very difficult.  You’d be more likely to stir the fertilizer up into the water column and make things worse trying to remove them.  Just keep up water changes as needed to keep the nitrates in a reasonable range (40 ppm or under), and let the plants do their thing.  Don’t start to add Easy Green until your nitrates stay under 40 when your water changes are down to about 10-25% once weekly.  Then adjust as needed to keep things around there since that seems to be a happy place for most tanks.

[Patrick_G]

I agree with @Odd Duck but also have a few thoughts. 
1. It looks like you only have about eight gallons of water in the tank so when you resume the Easy Green make sure to keep that in mind. 
2. Your plant mass is fairly low so that’s another reason to go easy on the Easy Green (haha). When the plants grow out more you might need to increase your dosing but for now I’d use very little. 

[Intuos]

I agree with the advice given the only thing I would add would be to add some floating plants as they are great for helping keep nitrates down in my experience. 

[lefty o]

agree, stop fertilizing until you get the numbers down. i would just continue doing your normal water changes, and monitor water quality. once things are under control, try 1 pump of easy green a week. if one or two particular plants show signs they are not getting enough nutrients, then you can put in a root tab  by that plant. with so many root tabs, and essentially double dosing easy green, it will just take some time for it to balance back out. IMO large water changes, especially in smaller tanks can cause as many problems as what you are trying to solve. if the fish arent distressed, dont do big water changes. 25-30% is plenty. if its not enough, do 25-30 every few days vs one large change.